The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for integrated circuit card initialization and embossing.
Integrated circuit cards (ICCs) are thin cards which have embedded therein an integrated circuit including a microprocessor and/or associated memory which can be accessed through contacts on the surface of the card so as to allow programming of the integrated circuit card's memory; i.e., reading and writing of information from and to the ICC memory. Integrated circuit cards can be customized for use by individuals. An example of one application of such cards are credit cards. Typically, the microprocessor contacts are flush with the surface of the card so that data may be entered, altered, and retrieved from memory. In programming the integrated circuit card, also referred to as initializing, personalized data unique to an individual and application-related data is entered into the microprocessor memory. Personalized data might include name, address, PIN, etc. Application data will relate to the intended use of the card and the card vendor's specifications. Various systems and apparatus for initializing integrated circuit cards are known; see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,600, hereby incorporated by reference. Although not required, integrated circuit cards typically have corresponding data transferred to the card by other methods, such as embossed on the card and/or encoded on a magnetic stripe on the card. Methods and apparatus for such types of traditional data transfer are well-known, as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,785 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,853, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Conventional embossing and magnetic stripe encoding machines have a plurality of stations, also referred to as modules, performing the embossing and magnetic stripe encoding. Each embossing module will typically emboss only a single line of information.
The initialization process is typically slower than traditional embossing or magnetic strip recording processes; e.g., the initializing process may take twenty seconds or more, whereas embossing of a single line of data and magnetic stripe encoding might each take two or three seconds. To accomplish both types of processes, the integrated circuit cards are first initialized at one machine. The initialized cards are then embossed, magnetic stripe encoded, etc. at another machine. Since initialization typically requires a longer period of time than the embossing or recording to magnetic strip process, preparing integrated circuit cards with both initialized and embossed or magnetic stripe data is a very time consuming process. Additionally, there is the problem of maintaining proper correlation between the cards when transferring the initialized cards from one machine to another. For example, if the cards are misplaced between the initialization process and the embossing, etc. process, this creates a problem in maintaining proper correlation of the data.
The present invention solves these and other problems.